Switchable roller finger followers are known, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,869. Such finger followers have an outer lever pivotably mounted outside an inner lever and a roller rotatably mounted in a slot in the inner liner. The top surface of the outer lever acts as a contact surface for a high lift cam and the top surface of the roller acts as a contact surface for a low lift cam. A coupling element is mounted at one end of the finger and oil from an oil source is used to activate the coupling element. When the coupling element is activated, it locks the outer lever to the inner lever and requires the follower to follow both the high lift cam and the low lift cam. When the coupling element is deactivated, the outer lever is free to pivot and, under the aid of a spring, the outer lever pivots freely in conjunction with the high lift cam. This movement by the outer lever is conventionally referred to as the lost motion stroke.
Conventionally, the outer lever is a unitary structure such that the coupling element need only operate as one part of the outer lever. Typically, the coupling device operated on a yoke portion of the outer layer, the yoke portion being transverse to the longitudinal axis of the finger follower.